background:
Before Johnny And The Self Abusers,
Jim and
Charlie were constantly inventing band names
and putting budding musicians together. "Me and Jim were in bands that were really just
like me and him and sort of friends, and we had all these different names - we changed names every three days."

It wasn't just thoughts and talk - they also performed. Their first gig was playing in front of a group of five year old orphans.

Like the early days of the
Abusers, Biba-Rom! were a covers band, taking on
Patti Smith, Cockney Rebel, David Bowie and Lou Reed.

And the name? "... there was a band at that time called Be Bop Deluxe and
I think we said we can't use be Bop but Biba was
close enough and Rom just because it sounded a good fit! Simple as
that really!" - Eneas Mullen, 26th February 2015

"...The bio reveals that Joe Donnelly was previously in The Silencers. However
prior to all of that, Joe who went to Holyrood School, was also in our first ever band BIBA ROM. (A glam rock outfit that
rehearsed often in the basement of Brian McGee's mother's house - but only
played one gig) also featuring absolute original Minds -
Brian McGee,
Tony Donald,
Charlie Burchill and yours truly." - Jim, 30th November 2016

SL: You made this record back near where you grew up. Is that right?CB: Part of it Steve. We did it in London and Glasgow. The last stages were in Glasgow. Funnily enough,
the studio we were working in, in the back room there's a stage  it's a little small hall with a stage  and it's
where we first ever got on a stage together. It wasn't even the punk band we were in before Simple Minds.
It was a band we had earlier than that.JK: You've got to tell Steve the details. He'll like that  the context.CB: It was a gig to orphans who were about twelve years of age. We played eight Velvet Underground songs.JK: It was Christmas party. We're played Heroin, What Goes On, Waiting For The Man... the guy
said "The kids were crying." I was crying, never mind them. But that was the birth. It was a glam rock, pre
punk... and now that hall is converted into a studio. It's minutes from where I was born and ten minutes from where
Charlie grew up.

At the studio, formerly the Polmadie Railway Social Club, Kerr tells us it's the venue where he
and Burchill performed a very early gig  a Christmas party for the rail workers' kids.

As he shows us around he notes: "The stage is still the same. It was the Christmas party but rather than play any
Christmas songs we covered "Heroin" by The Velvet Underground and "I'm Eighteen" by Alice Cooper.

"We were so loud and all the kids were crying. It's amazing that we are here again to rehearse.

Today, Kerr and
Burchill take Q on a tour
of their old haunts, kicking off in the Gorbals
Sound recording studio where theyve just
made their 18th album, Walk Between Worlds. The building is a former youth club
where as teenagers they played their first
ever gig in a band called Biba Rom. This
afternoon the two sit together and reminisce
on the still-existing stage, as Kerr
remembers, "It was somebody's birthday
party and there we were playing 'Heroin' by
The Velvet Underground."

Local HeroesQ Magazine
May 2018

JK: This was the Gorbals Railwaymen's Union's Club. People would come here Saturday and Sunday. You were meant to be in the Railwaymen's Union, but your
pal got you in.JK: So relating to Charlie Burchill and myself, our families came from within 5 to 10 minutes from here, so our
aunties and our uncles came to this building to dance and sing and make merry. So we always knew it as 'The Railway Club'. In 1975,
Charlie and I went to the same school  it was that period where we were just leaving school and not quite
working yet. We had a little school band called Biba-Rom! - don't ask me why - and
Brian McGee, who played drums in the original Simple Minds, his dad was never out the railway club and he said to
us "I can get you a gig," he said. "Yeah, the Christmas party for the kids on a Saturday afternoon before Christmas." So we did our one-and-only gig in
this building. The kids were crying.... [Laughs].... We were on stage dressed in clogs and satin bomber jackets and all this stuff, playing versions of
The Velvet Underground. I think it was all The Velvet Underground with feedback, singing songs of heroin and debauchery. The kids were just
screaming but not in a good way. [Laughs]